Our development and consultancy activities are performed with the objective to foster both local and economic development (especially SMME) and to contribute to poverty alleviation through:
- strengthening partner cooperative organisations (sustainable co-operative
systems and institution-building, organisational development);
- promoting cooperative know-how transfer by training activities;
- strengthening savings and credit cooperatives in rural areas;
- introducing cooperative auditing systems and
- advising national governments, banking supervision authorities and other public bodies on cooperative law, auditing and supervision of cooperatives.
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In its international work, DGRV co-operates with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which to a large extent provides financing of our projects.
In fulfilling its mandate, DGRV is providing advice and assistance to cooperatives in South Africa. These activities range from agricultural cooperatives, to savings and credit cooperatives, and to cooperatively organised self-help initiatives in townships.
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By co-operating with various local institutions involved in the promotion of co-operatives in South Africa , DGRV aims at:
- Promoting the gradual development of an adopted cooperative system in South Africa while ensuring that the needs of the members are met.
- Promoting efficient, member-supported and member oriented cooperative enterprises with the longterm aim to interlink these cooperatives into an
integrated system of cooperative institutions (secondary and tertiary cooperatives owned by primary and/or secondary cooperatives and cooperative federations)
on regional/national level.
- Promoting an adequate legal framework for a sustainable development of co-operatives.
- Promoting a consistent approach for training in cooperatives (member-education, training of staff and management, training of trainers). Introduction of training-modules covering administrative aspects, cooperative management and co-operative policies, all closely adopted to the needs of groups, cooperatives and its members.
- Supporting the development of a system of savings-and-credit cooperatives for
rural and urban areas.
- Facilitating the development of linkages between new (“emerging”) farmers and commercial agribusiness.
- Promoting a system of cooperative auditing (audit upon formation of a cooperative, audit of business activities, management performance audit).
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In particular, DGRV assists and advises the Yebo Cooperative Ltd. in its efforts to provide services and support to its member groups and cooperatives. In this regard, DGRV's activities are geared to strengthen cooperatives and other groups at primary level. Primary cooperatives and groups are encouraged to join the Yebo Cooperative that serves them e.g. through bulk buying, advisory services, capacity building, co-operative audit, business advice, small (micro) business development, financial services and other activities mutually agreed upon.
Together with the Agricultural Business Chamber (ABC), an organization of mainly commercial cooperatives and companies, DGRV has launched the Cooperative Development Initiative (CDI). It is envisaged:
- to develop linkages between emerging farmers and commercial agribusiness, and
- to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information on sound business principles to new (“emerging”) farmers.
- In addition, DGRV is a partner of the SH-Consult for Self-help Promotion, a close cooperation with expertise and capacity to carry out economic self-help projects, including cooperatives, in South Africa.
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Furthermore, DGRV is and was engaged in a number of other activities such as advice on the drafting of the new Cooperative Act and the Cooperative Banks Bill, the design of cooperative audit standards and principles, and taxation of cooperatives.
The underlying principle for DGRV's work is that co-operatives are institutions led by economic principles to serve the economic and social interests of their members within the market economy. |
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DGRV's approach is to start from what the people know and have. Cooperatives should be sensitive to the customs, local structures and experience of local people. People are already involved in many cooperatively organised self-help activities such as stokvels (rotating savings and credit associations) and burial societies. Group association, group cooperation and group responsibility are basic elements of African societies.
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